Your Edge: Artful Dodging with Steele Stanwick

The newly-minted women's lacrosse assistant at Johns Hopkins is
a Team USA hopeful and one of the most recognizable names in
lacrosse. He shared his tips for creating offense from X with
LM.

WHAT I DO

Run My Company

Stanwick Lacrosse. I started it on my own, but my older sister
Sheehan kind of helps me run it, and I get my younger brothers to
help me run the camps. We did two camps this summer, one in
Baltimore and one in Norfolk, Va. We had a good turnout, and
we’re hoping to do it a lot more in the fall and next
summer.

A version of this article appears in the October 2013 issue
of Lacrosse Magazine,the flagship publication of US
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Keep it Traditional

I’ve always used traditional leather strings. I never used
mesh. I love it. My dad strings my sticks. With the new NCAA rules,
you see traditional making more of a comeback, but I was using it
before the rule changes. When you get a good traditional stick,
there is nothing better. You can always feel the ball.

Hit the Wall

Growing up, I played wall ball in my garage every day, in season
and out of season, for about 30-45 minutes. I don’t even
think I realized how much I was out there. It almost became a
routine for me to the point where I had to get some wall ball in
before I did my homework. It was something I looked forward to.

MY FAMOUS LAX FAMILY

Sometimes, you don’t even realize how crazy it is that all
eight people (older sisters Wick, Sheehan and Coco; older brother
Tad; younger sister Covie and younger brothers Wells and Shack)
have played or will play Division I lacrosse. A lot of it can be
attributed to my dad, Wells Stanwick Sr., and my mom, Dori —
my mom for making sure we get to every practice and game, my dad
for taking the time to go out and play with us all the time. We all
kind of helped each other along the way as well. It’s been a
collective effort in the family. Neither of my parents played
lacrosse. My grandfather, Tad, played at St. John’s in
Annapolis.

MY OTHER INTERESTS

I love watching football. I love playing pick-up soccer.
I’m in a kickball league in downtown Baltimore. But when
you’re doing lacrosse fulltime, it’s kind of hard to
get away from it. I feel like everything always comes back to
lacrosse.

MY WELCOME-TO-THE-MLL MOMENT

I don’t think I practiced in the league until my third of
fourth game because I missed a bunch of flights. My first trip, I
was flying from Long Island to Ohio, and it was a 10-hour delay.
That was my welcome-to-the-league moment, where I was like
“Oh my gosh. This is going to different.”